


Dinner at La Maria

by Storyshark2005



Series: (No) Mercy for the Midlife Crisis Universe [2]
Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:21:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22304845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyshark2005/pseuds/Storyshark2005
Summary: Johnny has a run-in with an old girlfriend. Daniel drinks tequila.--Quick one-shot, because I can't get this scene to fit anywhere else.You can consider this within the "(No) Mercy for the Midlife Crisis" universe, sometime after.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Series: (No) Mercy for the Midlife Crisis Universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609726
Comments: 8
Kudos: 193





	Dinner at La Maria

  
  


***

Johnny’s lived in the Valley his whole life, long enough to know that 1.7 million people wasn’t enough to hide, not from Daniel LaRusso, not from John Kreese, and apparently, not from his ex-girlfriends. 

Well. “Girlfriend” might be generous. He’d only dated Dani for a few months. He hasn’t seen her in six or seven years probably, not since she’d wised up and quit slumming it with him. He spots her out of the corner of his eye, and makes the mistake of looking up as she’s leading her date to the door, a glint of gold winking from her left hand. 

“Johnny--” she drops his name from her lips, all shock and she’s still got that low, kind of husky voice, like a Miley Cyrus voice except like...classy. She had a long narrow face, dark, bottle-black hair, pale skin and a long down-sloping grecian nose, all of which set off a pair of wide green eyes. Great body, tall and lean. She wore glasses, which gave her sort of a sexy-librarian appeal. Except that she wasn’t some cartoon from a skin mag-- she had a flint-quick mind and a dry wit and in retrospect, everything about her fling with Johnny screamed ‘daddy issues.’ 

Johnny also figures it might have had something to do with dropping out of UCLA and working the bar a few blocks from his apartment. _Location, location, location..._

Basically, Johnny had a glorious 3-month ride sleeping with an incredibly attractive woman half his age who was probably having a quarter-life crisis at the time. The breakup was gentle, half because Johnny was expecting it, half because he was drunk. He has a bleary memory of a Sunday morning sitting on the bed in his underwear watching her tearfully pack her stuff into a duffle bag, something about moving back home with her parents in Kansas City. 

_“I can’t stay here, Johnny, I’m...I’m wasting...do you understand? I’ve gotta figure something out,”_ she’d said, standing in his bedroom like the deck of a sinking ship. She knelt between his knees, her impossibly young face damp and pink, looking up at him like that, shaking her head. _“I think you should try to change something,”_ a hand at his face. _“You’re worth more than this.”_

It’s been seven years, Johnny’s brain slowly catches up as she stills, fingers still caught in the hand of her date. 

_“Hey,”_ she finds her bearings, slipping into a polite post-shock smile, the one people use when they’re not sure yet if they’re glad to see you. “Wow, Johnny, _hi--”_

Daniel’s watching them from over his menu across the table, and Johnny feels strangely guilty, like he’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t. 

Johnny manages a stuttery _“he-e-e-eyyy, Dani”_ and kind of turns sideways in his chair. She puts her arms out and leans forward so he has to stand up and give her an awkward hug. She explains she’s with her fiance ‘Troy’, one of those lean runner-types who can somehow pull off a shaved head, and it makes Johnny feel a little less creepy that she’s still going for the older crowd, the guy has to be 45 or 50. 

There’s a clear pause after she introduces Troy and Johnny shakes his hand. He knows he should introduce Daniel but there’s just too much weirdness, seeing her again after so long, and she looks so _great_ and he still feels guilty for even sleeping with her, and she always had this pitiful way of looking at him, which was understandable given his state at the time. 

“So you’re not in Kansas City anymore, huh?” he covers up, and her eyes dart away from Daniel and back to Johnny. 

“Oh, no,” she laughs, “I got home and couldn’t wait to leave again. Wasn’t worth the free rent.” 

“You goin’ back to school, or....” 

“Yeah, law school--” she grimaces, rolling her eyes back into her head in exaggeration. It was pretty cute.

“Oh wow, that’s great,” he nods, hands in his pockets. 

“What about you? What are you up to? You still hang out at _Sammy’s?”_

 _“No,_ yeah not for awhile,” he nods, trying to think of what to say, _oh well I opened a karate dojo for a year until my old karate master seized it in dramatic fashion._

“I’m just, uh, I’m teaching karate...” And it’s too wide of an opening, so he throws a thumb back over his shoulder. Daniel has his menu flat on the table now, watching. 

“With this guy,” he finishes, nodding at Daniel. Maybe he’s salvaged the situation. 

Dani immediately turns, leans an arm out to Daniel, both smiling politely. 

_“Daniel,”_ she repeats after his introduction, trapping Daniel’s hand in her own. Her face changes, head cocking a little, Johnny remembers she used to do that over open books or the crossword puzzle, when she would connect an idea, string something together from ether. 

Daniel nods, eyebrows crinkling in confusion, and she looks back over at Johnny with wide eyes. 

Uh oh. 

“This is _Daniel_ ,” she asks Johnny, mouth open a little. 

“Yeah,” he nods. “We, we’re. We teach karate together. And stuff. I’m with-- I’m. Friends with him. We’re friends. Together.” 

Fucking jesus fuck. What the fuck was that?! 

“Daniel from the billboards?” 

Johnny feels a few memories come back, Dani driving him across town in her shitty silver Corolla, late nights, there was a billboard between the bar and her place he thinks, straining his memory. At one time a ‘LaRusso Auto’ billboard, maybe. He may have done some drunken ranting. Maybe.

“Wow,” Dani shakes her head, and this time a genuine smile pulls across her face, dazzling, the one he remembers from when he used to make her laugh. _“Wow_ , sorry, I-- Johnny used to talk about you.” 

_“What?”_ Johnny has to cough so his voice doesn’t crack. “I didn’t, not really--” 

“You did?” Daniel grins, leaning his chin on his fist and really, this might be saving Johnny’s ass tonight.

“He did,” Dani laughs, and gives Daniel a warm, re-appraising look. “I noticed the billboards are different now, they’ve got your, uh--” she stops herself. 

_“Ex_ -wife,” Daniel corrects politely. “I’m still involved at the dealership, but...trying to get out of it and spend more time with this guy. Teaching karate. _And stuff.”_

Dani laughs, sweet and totally charmed. Fucker. “I always thought it was funny, he used to call me ‘Danielle’ all the time, and I never went by that. Maybe he was mixing me up.”

 _“Did he?”_ Daniel leans forward, grinning now. 

Johnny takes a seat, closes his eyes and waits for it all to be over. 

_"Oh yeah_ ,” Dani laughs. “And if one of those commercials came on, it was like,” she lowers her voice in comic imitation-- “ _‘get ready for a half hour rant on LaRusso and how much I like to talk about LaRusso this, and LaRusso that,’_ and I would tell him, ‘You know nobody talks that much about somebody they don’t--” 

“WOW, it was so good to see you, Dani,” he stares up at her significantly, cocking his head to the door. 

“Alright, alright,” she leans down, kisses him on the cheek and whispers, _“I’m proud of you, Johnny.”_

She tells him to find her on Facebook and they leave, Dani’s fingers crooking behind her in a shy wave to Daniel. 

The waiter finally comes over and Daniel gets a double Patron and tonic, and snaps, “You’re driving, _friend.”_

Johnny leans back in his chair and stretches his legs out across the floor, bumping his boots against the toes of Daniel’s dress shoes (he’d come to dinner straight from the dealership, they were at a Mexian joint in North Hollywood called _La Maria_ ). Daniel is studying his menu like the SAT and Johnny taps their shoes together. Daniel looks up. 

He’s not in a bad mood per se, but Johnny can tell the delayed introduction had bothered him. 

“Half-hour rants, huh?” 

Johnny rolls his eyes. 

“How long were you with her?” 

“Three months. I was drunk for most of it.”

A pause, the menu catches Daniel’s attention again. “She’s very pretty,” he murmurs. 

"Yeah, well.” Johnny shifts around, sinking into his own menu. “I have a type.”

“What’s that?” Oh like he didn’t hear that.

Johnny puts his menu down, leans across the table on his elbows. “You heard me. I only date pretty people, LaRusso."

LaRusso kicks at him under the table but finally looks a little mollified. 

They fuck around and flirt across the table and Johnny enjoys Daniel’s slightly red cheeks from the alcohol. He drives them home and Daniel barely gets his pants and shoes off before he collapses down on the bed. 

“Set my alarm, will ya?” Daniel mutters into his pillow as Johnny pulls the covers up over them. “Gotta get up early.” 

“Okay,” Johnny grabs Daniel’s phone and throws it across the room. They could do without him tomorrow. 

“Johnny,” Daniel mutters, just after Johnny leans over and switches off the lamp. 

“Yeah,” he answers, settling on his side in the dark. He throws an arm around Daniel’s ribcage, pulling them together now because he’s only got so much time-- it’ll get too hot soon, Daniel was like a furnace at night. 

Daniel heaves a sigh, flops on his back with drunken clumsiness, and pushes his hands to his face. _“WhattdoI call you,”_ he groans. “I don’t even...what’re you...my friend?”

“What?” Johnny sits up on his elbow. 

“You told Dani I wassyer friend,” Daniel sighs, Johnny can just make him out in the dark. “I wassorta mad, but. I don’t know what to call you either.” He reaches up, almost like a little kid and touches the fringe ends of Johnny’s hair. “ ‘juswish we had a name, you know.” 

“You need to lay off the tequila, LaRusso,” Johnny leans down a little, pushing into the reach of his fingertips, feels the blunt ends of Daniel’s nails touch breath-like on his scalp. “And we don’t need that,” he mutters. 

Daniel hums into Johnny’s lips, and they turn over and settle down into the soft sheets. 

Johnny turns the mantra over and over in his head, in his dreams: 

_I just wish we had a name._

_I wish we had a name._

  
  
  


***

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> 'Dani' is based on a girl I knew in middle and high school. I used to have a girl-crush on her, she was super smart and cool and funny and rebellious and sophisticated... all in a sort of goth-glamour, teenage way that is so unattainable for most of us at that age.
> 
> And she ended up marrying a guy quite a bit older, which I also found cool in a bizarre way?? Anyway there's nothing better than real life so... here she is :)


End file.
